Government Leadership + Research

From March 2021 to January 2025, I served as Senior Equity Advisor at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services—the nation’s largest social services agency—where I launched and guided its first agency-wide equity initiative. This work resulted in every major social services program developing multi-year strategic plans to address inequities, embedding equity as a core operational priority.

As a federal grants and contracts officer overseeing a research portfolio, I managed $100M in federal contracts, oversaw eight project teams, and convened cross-agency workgroups to align research, policy, and practice. My role included cultivating a sustained commitment to applying a racial equity lens to federal research, designing a multi-year strategy for culture change, and leading trainings that reached staff across the country. I also organized four national conferences and established a Community Advisory Board to ensure lived experience informed federal decision-making.